On 11-12 December, within the framework of the EU Erasmus+ project “Strengthening the QUAlity and RElevance of the 3rd mission in Georgian Universities” (SQUARE), the final conference "SQUARE - Addressing 3rd Mission in Universities: Local and Global" was held.  The national and international partners of the project were hosted by Ilia State University.

Within the framework of the conference, universities and representatives of organizations involved in the project presented detailed information on various aspects of the third mission and internationalization goals and their practical experience. In addition, the participants discussed international and local challenges, updated quality assessment standards and plans to be implemented to achieve the goals of the third mission.  

Several panel discussions were held during the conference. On the part of Caucasus University, Mariam Menabde, Dean of the School of Architecture, spoke in the panel session "Democratization of Knowledge - Community Influence” about the role and perspective of architecture and design schools in the Third Mission. In addition, Guranda Chelidze, professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University, presented a report on best practices of the university and discussed the results and recommendations of the Erasmus + Jean Monnet project "Triangle Effect of European Studies at Schools" (TEESS) in the long term.

The main goal of the project is to improve the activities of the third mission of the university in Georgian higher education institutions.  During the project, description, analysis, strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of 3M activities of the universities took place, considering the capabilities of the university's top management and staff.

The coordinator of the project SQUARE is Tbilisi State University.  8 Georgian and 3 European universities, the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia and LEPL - National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement are involved in the project.

For more information, please visit the project website.